Social & Emotional Learning and Critical Perspectives on SEL Related Initiatives

Emotional literacy at an early age can make a big difference in a person's life. Here are some steps for helping adults and young children understand a child's big emotions.

http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2015/04/13/the-benefits-of-helping-preschoolers-understand-and-discuss-their-emotions/

Lady Gaga's Born This Way Foundation and the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence have teamed up to launch an initiative called the Emotion Revolution.

When students are motivated by star charts and glitter pencils instead of a love of knowledge, writes Justin Minkel, they stop paying attention to what they're supposed to be learning.

http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2015/03/23/distracted-by-rewards-moving-beyond-carrots-and.html

"Studies show children whose parents are involved in their education do better in school, and our hope is to provide you with useful tips and tools to support your growing child at all ages. The Parent Toolkit is a one-stop shop resource that was produced and developed with parents in mind.

The Toolkit focuses on many aspects of your child’s development, because it is all connected. Healthy, successful children can excel in many areas – in the classroom, on the court, and in their relationships with peers and adults. We have worked with experts across the country including classroom teachers, college professors, pediatricians, dieticians, psychologists, and parents, to make the resource as robust and useful as possible."...

For full page and related resources, click on title above or here: 
http://www.parenttoolkit.com/

by Pam Belluck (Pictured are Emanuele Castano, left, and David Comer Kidd, researchers in the New School for Social Research’s psychology department. Credit Casey Kelbaugh for The New York Times) 

"Say you are getting ready for a blind date or a job interview. What should you do? Besides shower and shave, of course, it turns out you should read — but not just anything. Something by Chekhov or Alice Munro will help you navigate new social territory better than a potboiler by Danielle Steel.
 

That is the conclusion of a study published Thursday in the journal Science. It found that after reading literary fiction, as opposed to popular fiction or serious nonfiction, people performed better on tests measuring empathy, social perception and emotional intelligence — skills that come in especially handy when you are trying to read someone’s body language or gauge what they might be thinking.

The researchers say the reason is that literary fiction often leaves more to the imagination, encouraging readers to make inferences about characters and be sensitive to emotional nuance and complexity."...

For full post, click on title above or here: 
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/03/i-know-how-youre-feeling-i-read-chekhov/

"This project was piloted in four communities across the United States: Durham, Nashville, rural Pennsylvania and Seattle. Fast Track is based on the hypothesis that improving child competencies, parenting effectiveness, school context, and school-home communications will, over time, contribute to preventing certain behaviors across the period from early childhood through adolescence."...

For more, click on title above or here:
http://www.fasttrackproject.org/

By Jessica Lahey
"If your children’s school seems to suddenly be devoting its time and resources to something called SEL, it may be leaving you wondering what happened to good old reading, writing and arithmetic (or even that new darling, coding). You’re not alone. SEL stands for social emotional learning, and it’s a hot topic at the moment among educators with good reason.

While you may not have heard the acronym SEL before, you have probably seen social emotional learning sprinkled throughout schools’ mission statements, behavioral expectations and curricula, under the varying monikers of character, resilience, personal responsibility, self-control, “grit,” emotional or social intelligence, among others.

The Collaborative for Social Emotional and Academic Learning defines social emotional learning as: “the process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.”

In other words, social emotional learning is what allows students to control their behavior, understand how their personal behavior impacts others, and enables them to empathize and collaborate with others. As any teacher can attest, children who are less able to master these skills impede their own learning and can disrupt the educational process for their classmates as well.

An oft-cited study on the impact of SEL on learning indicates that students who lack of social-emotional competencies become less connected to school over time, “and this lack of connection negatively affects their academic performance, behavior, and health.” The study goes on to report that SEL programs confer a positive impact on student behavior, academic achievement and grades.

While social emotional learning programs may look different from school to school, most are designed to support and enhance five areas of social and emotional development:

•Self-awareness: The ability to reflect on one’s own feelings and thoughts and understand how those feelings and thoughts affect behavior.

•Self-management (also referred to as “self-control”): The ability to control one’s own emotions, actions and thoughts.

•Social awareness: The ability to empathize with other people, understand and adhere to social cues and adapt behaviors so they are appropriate to a given social situation.

•Relationship skills: The ability to communicate with peers, make friends, manage disagreements, manage appropriate and inappropriate peer pressure and cooperate with a diverse range of people.

•Responsible decision making: The ability to make healthy choices about one’s own behavior while weighing consequences, safety, ethics and the well-being of the group."...

For full post, click on title above or here: 
http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/parenting/2014/12/04/playing-nicely-with-others-why-schools-teach-social-emotional-learning/

"Through a powerful curriculum, the 180º Program provides the opportunity and educational framework for elementary school, middle school, high school and college youth to fully develop their internal compass so they can develop healthy goals based upon a foundation of strong personal values, reflective and critical thinking skills, and social awareness and responsibility.

The world that youth will inherit in the 21st century is filled with opportunity and hope. It is a world of global economies, rich diversity and ethnicity, advanced technological achievement, and rewarding career opportunities. The world also presents significant challenges and new issues that today’s youth will confront as adults. The American society of the 21st century will require youth to achieve specialized credentials and skills to be most successful in life. Specifically, youth will be required to successfully obtain post secondary education degrees or other specialized credentials to qualify for a secure family wage career in the 21st century global workplace and economy. The importance of successfully completing a quality educational experience is higher today than at any other time so that youth can go on to complete additional specialized education.

In addition to high academic standards, youth will also require full development of character and life skills to more effectively navigate as highly productive and fulfilled individuals in our communities. And to ensure that youth stay the course while in school, opportunities for character and social emotional learning is essential in addition to high academic standards."

For main webpage: 

http://180-degrees.com/index.html

Mission:
To help all young people succeed socially, emotionally and academically by advancing and supporting effective social and emotional learning programs, policies and practices in all schools and communities in Massachusetts.

Vision:
We envision Massachusetts schools and community education-serving groups as centers of safe, caring and supportive activity where youth and educators are empathetic, resilient, culturally aware and responsive, civically engaged and where young people develop the skills to solve problems, manage emotions and form positive relationships with others."...

For main website, click on title above or here: 

http://www.sel4mass.org/